CLEVELAND — As the GOP formalized Donald Trump’s nomination on Tuesday, his supporters clashed with protesters demonstrating blocks away from the convention hall.
Pro-Trump counter-protesters met anti-Trump and Black Lives Matter protesters who were marching near the convention site and things got heated quickly.
Note: The ensuing arguments feature profanity.
In one altercation, a Trump supporter questioned a Black Lives Matter protester by asking about how many people had died in Chicago. The protester sought to turn around the question and asked, “Have you gone to Chicago to actually help out the neighborhoods that need that help?”
“No,” the Trump supporter replied, “let them help themselves.”
“I’m going to step way back over here and let everybody else handle this son of a b—-h,” the protester said.
Then the argument escalated.
Before the Washington Examiner had the chance to identify the members of the argument, law enforcement began moving protesters down the street. Cleveland police and law enforcement officials from states across the country were on hand to physically separate the anti-Trump and pro-Trump forces.
Owen Shroyer, a Trump supporter, challenged anti-Trump forces to debate him and said if they attempted the protest in other countries, “you’d get your a— kicked.”
The anti-Trump forces were well outnumbered the Trump supporters. Ray, one of several anti-Trump demonstrators who declined to provide their full names, carried a sign that read, “The Trump campaign is a crime against humanity” and noted that accepting Trump’s statements as true amounted to an insult to his intelligence. Ray did not explain what crime he thought the Trump campaign had committed, however, and noted that someone else had given him the sign to promote.
(Photo: Michael Barone/Washington Examiner)
As the protests grew longer, local residents grew angry about their inability to move around town. Roz McAllister, a 62-year-old Cleveland resident, vented her frustration to the police and blamed the City of Cleveland.
Other GOP convention-goers got caught in the middle of the protest, including Grover Norquist, the president of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform.
After the arrival of mounted police and a larger law enforcement presence on Euclid Avenue, the demonstration shifted. City, state, and federal officials have largely contained the protests from devolving into violence but protesters did succeed at disrupting traffic.
(Photo: Michael Barone/Examiner)
To agitators looking to cause future problems, Cleveland police chief Calvin Williams challenged them to seek him out rather than hide behind masks. Whether larger demonstrations will threaten the convention when Trump takes the main stage later this week remains to be seen.
